


is it chill that you're in my head?

by lazyfish



Series: delicate [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Allo/Ace Relationship, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Alphonso Mackenzie, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Multi, Polyamory, Pride 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24669817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: It doesn't take long for Mack to realize he's in love with Bobbi and Hunter and has been for a while. Other realizations take slightly longer.
Relationships: Lance Hunter/Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie/Bobbi Morse
Series: delicate [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073246
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	is it chill that you're in my head?

The first day Bobbi spent out of the medbay, Mack brought her flowers.

He had been on grocery duty that week, and buying the bouquet near the front of the store had been an impulse decision. He didn’t make many of those, but it felt important to commemorate the beginning of what was sure to be a long journey.

He knocked on the door to Bobbi’s new bunk - the only one in the base with a handicap shower (which Mack was pretty sure wasn’t ADA-compliant) and wasn’t surprised when Hunter was the one to answer the door.

“Hi,” he said, cocking his head to the side when he saw the flowers. “Those for Bob?”

“Yeah.” Mack cleared his throat awkwardly. Things had changed between him and Hunter since Real S.H.I.E.L.D., even if all was forgiven. He couldn’t put his finger on _how_ things had changed, though - just that they had.

Hunter let him into the room, and when Bobbi saw him she burst into a smile. “Mack!” 

“Hey, Barbara.” Mack set the vase with the flowers beside her bed, then leaned down to give her a half-hug. Her left arm still wasn’t the most mobile, but she looked in surprisingly good spirits for someone who had spent the last month in a hospital bed. She was still skinnier than he was used to, muscle mass eaten up by weeks of barely being able to move, but her eyes shone brightly.

“Hunter’s going to grab a pizza. Want to stay for dinner?”

“Nah, you should -”

“Mate, if you tell her to rest she might attack you.” Hunter thumped Mack on the shoulder. “Stay. Someone needs to make sure this one actually obeys bed rest while I’m gone anyways.”

Bobbi huffed. Mack looked from her to Hunter and back again before relenting. “Okay.”

“Thanks.” Hunter grinned, smacked a kiss on Bobbi’s cheek, then waved to both of them before ducking out of the room.

“So,” Mack said after a minute when he was sure Hunter wouldn’t barge in for something he’d forgotten, “he’s handling this all well.” Mack settled himself on the bed beside Bobbi, kicking off his shoes so he wouldn’t get the comforter dirty.

“He hasn’t slept since…”

“Have you?” Even though Bobbi looked decent, she was far from normal. Beyond the missing muscle mass, she was different - her cheeks hollower, the dark circles under her eyes dominating her face.

“Some.” Bobbi began picking at a loose thread on the comforter with her good hand. “Not much, but some.”

Mack accepted the answer silently. The difference between Hunter and Bobbi was that Hunter had always been an insomniac, a relic of his army days. Bobbi, on the other hand, had always had the prenatural ability to sleep wherever, whenever. Sleep eluding her wasn’t normal.

He hesitated before putting his arm loosely around her shoulders, careful not to disturb the bandage still covering the bullet wound. “I just want you to be okay.”

“I will be okay,” Bobbi said forcefully. 

“I know.” He turned to press a gentle kiss to her temple. “I know.” Mack had a deep and enduring belief in quite a few concepts - a benevolent God and the stubbornness of humanity among them. Bobbi Morse was also on that list. He believed she would be alright the way he believed the sun would rise; it was an inevitability.

“How’d you convince Hunter to go get pizza?”

“A lady never shares her secrets.” Bobbi smirked.

Mack snorted. “I doubt whatever you did to Hunter will work for me.”

Bobbi arched an eyebrow but didn’t dignify his retort with a response. Instead she laid her head against his shoulder, carefully slotting herself in place at his side. The weight of her against his ribs was warm and soothing in a way Mack hadn’t expected.

“Thank you for the flowers,” Bobbi said quietly.

“Of course.” The look on her face had been well-worth the impulse purchase.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think recently,” Bobbi said after a long silence. “And I was thinking maybe we can find something good in all this shit.” She turned to look at him with plaintive blue eyes, and Mack tightened his grip around her shoulders reflexively.

“I think we can, too.”

“Good.” She went back to resting her head on him, content to sit together for a while.

When Hunter returned with the pizza he didn’t make any comment on how close Bobbi and Mack were - just threw the box onto the bed and fished out his first slice.

The pizza was cheap and greasy and Hunter’s voice was _loud_ after the murmured conversation he and Bobbi had been having, but it eased a knot in Mack’s chest he didn’t know was there. Being loud, smiling, laughing… it all felt good after the year they’d had. He and Bobbi didn’t have to lie to Hunter anymore, they weren’t on the run from much, Bobbi was healing. _They_ were healing.

They’d never recapture the years they’d had when Bobbi and Hunter were happily married and they’d lived on the California coast in a land of eternal sunshine, but they could have this.

\---

The next week, Mack was on grocery duty again. According to Coulson it was going to be one of his jobs for the foreseeable future, given May’s sabbatical, Bobbi’s inability to drive, and Fitz’s unwillingness to take himself out of the lab. 

The flowers tucked under his arm weren’t an afterthought, this time. Imagining Bobbi’s smile when she got them helped him through the rest of the grocery trip and the entire drive back to the base. He pulled into the garage and found Bobbi and Hunter waiting for him - Bobbi in her wheelchair and Hunter hovering behind her.

“Need help unloading groceries?” Hunter asked. Mack nodded, popping open the trunk so Hunter could grab some of the bags. 

Mack had kept the flowers in the passenger seat next to him, and deposited the cellophane-wrapped bouquet into Bobbi’s lap with a smile.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Bobbi said. She looked not-so-secretly pleased, though, and Mack made a mental note to add flowers to his list for next week, too.

Between him and Hunter, they managed to get all the groceries to the kitchen in one trip. Daisy drifted into the kitchen, took a look at the three of them, and rolled her eyes. “You kids go have fun. I’ve got the groceries.”

Mack didn’t understand exactly what she meant by that, considering all three of them were older than her and therefore hardly _kids_ , but he didn’t argue with her.

“So, Mack, are you free Friday night?” Hunter asked as they made their way back to Bobbi and Hunter’s bunk.

Mack raised his eyebrows. As far as he knew, Friday nights were Bobbi and Hunter’s date nights. Maybe that had changed while she was in the hospital - he didn’t want to ask and dredge up any painful memories. 

“I can be.” He didn’t have many standing plans, since Fitz was dodging his attempts to set up weekly video games. Other than missions, Mack didn’t have much to do, which was why he had been spending as much time hanging around Bobbi and Hunter as he had the past week or so.

“Excellent,” Bobbi said, stopping to input the key code for the room. She did it slowly, deliberately, almost like she wanted Mack to be able to see the pattern of the numbers. He filed the code away in his memory, just in case he ever needed it, and followed Bobbi and Hunter into the room.

Hunter busied himself replacing the flowers in the vase, brushing an absent kiss on the top of Bobbi’s head when he passed her.

“You need help?” Mack asked, looking at Bobbi and then the bed.

“I’ve got it, thanks.” Bobbi didn’t sound as annoyed by the question as Mack expected, so he counted it as a win.

When Bobbi had climbed into bed, Mack took his place at her side. When he’d visited Bobbi and Hunter last week he’d become accustomed to having Bobbi lean against him, her head on his shoulder. It was nice - almost domestic. If he were Hunter, he probably would’ve kissed Bobbi’s head again, just because he could.

Mack blinked. _That_ thought had come out of nowhere.

Or maybe it hadn’t. But he wasn’t focusing on that right now.

Bobbi slid her fingers through his, and Mack squeezed her hand gently. The hand-holding was new since Bobbi had come home from the hospital, but Mack liked it. Her hands were dry and cracked but she’d implemented a rigorous lotion routine she had no qualms with telling Mack about in detail. Listening to Bobbi was easy, though, because she never talked just to fill silence. Hell, even Hunter, who would talk only to hear his own voice, was nice to listen to.

“You still like Chinese takeout?” Hunter asked as he flopped into bed beside Mack. He wasn’t as cuddly as Bobbi, but he also wasn’t hopped up on pain meds half the time, so it made sense.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Friday night plans, then,” Hunter declared. “No beer, though. Bob’s angry she can’t have any.”

“I’m not angry,” Bobbi pouted.

“Then why are you bringing back Prohibition!?” Hunter asked.

“Okay, first of all, England didn’t even _have_ Prohibition -” Bobbi started.

They began to bicker like the not-quite-married couple they were, and Mack just shook his head fondly. He was stuck with them, bickering and all.

\---

“Okay,” Hunter said as he wheeled Bobbi down the hallway of the base towards the kitchen, “theoretically, who do you think would win in a fight - Terminator, or May?”

“Man, don’t make me answer that question.” Mack thunked the bag of Chinese takeout onto the table. “She’s probably still here somewhere, watching me.”

“Watching _you_?” Hunter scoffed. “No, she’s just waiting for me to let my guard down. Then -” he karate chopped the air.

“You didn’t cut off her partner’s arm.” Mack stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his argument made for him.

“You did kind of save his life, though,” Bobbi said, leaning her elbows onto the table. “That has to count for something.” She tried to catch his eye, but Mack wouldn’t let her. He wasn’t going to get her psychoanalyzing him for his guilt about maiming his boss. He was fine about it. Mostly.

“New question.” Hunter began rummaging around the kitchen for utensils. “Mack versus May, who wins?”

“May,” Daisy said as she breezed into the kitchen.

“Thanks, Tremors.”

“Someone’s gotta keep you humble. God knows these two can’t.” Daisy grinned.

“Hey!” Bobbi glared at Daisy, but wasn’t in much of a position to chase the woman as she pranced out of the kitchen with her snack in hand.

“I can totally keep you humble,” Bobbi muttered under her breath as Hunter handed her a fork.

“Yes you can, Barbara,” Mack said consolingly. He didn’t need her coming after him when she was all healed up and able to kick his ass again. “Come on, where’s the fortune cookies?”

“I thought Hunter was supposed to be the childish one.”

“They’re not _real_ cookies, I can have them before dinner.” That had always been the rule in his house - he could have a fortune cookie before his meal, and another after. It was a nice tradition, even if it was atypical according to Bobbi and Hunter.

“Oh my God, Mack, listen to yourself!” 

“She’s got a point, love.”

“You two aren’t supposed to gang up on me!” Mack whined. So he liked fortune cookies - sue him! The whole point of being a third wheel was that he was the arbiter of conflicts, not the one being picked on.

“Fine.” Hunter tossed a cookie at him, and Mack caught it one-handed. “Showoff,” Hunter grumbled.

“Boys,” Bobbi said warningly. She wasn’t much for playing referee on the rare instances Mack and Hunter got into squabbles.

Mack cracked open his cookie, squinting at the tiny writing. _You can see a lot just by looking._ Helpful. What was he supposed to look at? His unfairly gorgeous best friend and her equally-gorgeous basically-husband?

He was _not_ going there. 

“Okay, _Daisy_ versus Mack.” Hunter cracked open his own fortune cookie, obviously not expecting the answers he got to be as immediate as they were.

“Daisy,” Mack and Bobbi said in unison. 

“She’s the muscle,” Mack added. He didn’t doubt he could hold his own against Daisy in hand-to-hand, but she had seismic powers and he decidedly did not.

“What if Mack was all Inhuman-y?”

“Did you ever try one of the pills, Mack?” Bobbi asked.

“No. Please tell me you two haven’t.”

Silence. 

“Aw, c’mon, guys.” If they had gone through Terrigenesis and gotten messed up, he would have been _so_ pissed.

“We haven’t _yet_ , we’re just considering.”

“Snitches end up in ditches,” Hunter added. As if him snitching on them was even a possibility. Considering he had choked Hunter and handcuffed him to a sink, Mack was pretty sure he was never allowed to snitch on the other man again.

He could, however, roll his eyes. “Eat your lo mein, Hunter.”

Hunter rolled his eyes but turned back to his food. He occasionally stopped shovelling noodles into his mouth to ask about another theoretical matchup, which Bobbi and Mack spent an increasingly long time debating. 

“It’s all situational,” Bobbi insisted as she scraped the last of her fried rice out of the container. “Even Jemma got me when she had the element of surprise.”

Mack froze, then looked over his shoulder. No Fitz. Good.

“Her name can’t be taboo,” Bobbi said, muscles in her jaw tightening.

“Not saying it has to be.” Mack stood, grabbing Bobbi and Hunter’s used utensils to throw into the sink. He’d wash them tomorrow morning with the breakfast dishes. “Just that it might be easier for all of us if some people don’t hear it.”

“He can be rather cranky. Much like some other people I know,” Hunter said, glaring pointedly at Mack.

“Are you trying to call _me_ cranky?” Mack probably ought to have been offended.

Bobbi smiled a little, mischievous smile. “Who do you think he’s talking about, then?”

“Oh, that’s a trap if I’ve ever seen one, Barbara.” Mack allowed Hunter out of the kitchen first, then followed behind. “And I’m not falling for it.”

“Come on, Mack!”

“I don’t give into peer pressure,” Mack announced.

“Oh, I can name at _least_ five instances that wasn’t true.”

The newest bout of teasing carried them all the way back to Bobbi and Hunter’s room. Mack held the door open and watched with eagle eyes when Bobbi hopped from her wheelchair into the bed.

“I should get going.” Better to beg off now than later, when it was awkward.

“No, stay,” Bobbi pouted.

Mack looked to Hunter for support. Hunter just lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “I wouldn’t say no to her, but that’s just me.”

Which was how three hours later Mack ended up pressed between Bobbi’s body and Hunter’s. He’d slept with both of them separately before - Bobbi on missions, Hunter on one of the few guy’s nights they’d managed when he was married to Bobbi - but together, never. Whenever the three of them had occasion to be alone in a bedroom together, Mack had begged off before he could hear noises he couldn’t scrub from his brain.

He couldn’t help but wonder if it was more to it than that; if there was something in itself he hadn’t wanted to awaken. It was ridiculous, because there was _no_ way he could be in love with Bobbi and Hunter.

Mack nuzzled his nose into Bobbi’s hair, the scent of a familiar shampoo a small comfort in an altogether unfamiliar situation. Her breathing was deep and even. Hunter’s was less so, but he’d slowed it to at least give the illusion of sleep. Hunter would probably get up in an hour or two when he was sure not to disturb either of his bedmates.

Despite how strange everything was, it didn’t take long for Mack’s brain to go fuzzy, or for him to drift into a peaceful sleep.

\---

Sleeping with Bobbi and Hunter became a pattern. A pattern Mack still didn’t understand, but he enjoyed too much to protest. He spent most of his free time with them, anyways, chatting or reading or watching Bobbi do her physical therapy exercises and telling her to _sit down, Barbara_ when she tried to push herself too hard, too fast.

Getting Fitz to agree to video games remained a non-starter. Bobbi said he hung around sometimes during her PT sessions with the specialists, which was something, at least. But Mack missed video games enough that he still wanted a game partner. Sometimes he could get Daisy to agree, but more often than not Hunter was the one who got dragged to the common room to get his ass kicked.

Like today.

“Aw, c’mon,” Hunter groaned as Mack once again knocked him off-course in Mario Kart. “Can’t you take pity on me!?”

“Only winners get pity,” Mack laughed.

“You have been spending way too much time with Bob.”

“He’s been spending way too much time with both of you,” Daisy said, vaulting over the couch and settling herself in between Mack and Hunter. She always seemed to show up only after Mack had found someone else to torture, and he wasn’t entirely convinced she wasn’t using her hacking skills for evil. “You stole my partner!”

“You stole _my_ partner,” Hunter shot back - never mind that that made _no_ sense, since Hunter and Mack had never been partnered in the field. 

“Did not!”

“Did so!”

“Guys,” Mack sighed. “C’mon.” At least when Bobbi and Hunter argued he didn’t have to worry about a physical fight breaking out.

“You can have Mack back,” Hunter said, shoving the controller into Daisy’s hands. “He’s being mean to me.”

“Beating you isn’t being mean to you, Lance.”

“Not standing up for me against Daisy’s slander is!” Hunter stuck out his lip in what might’ve been the most adorable pout Mack had ever seen. That, combined with the stupid hazel puppy eyes, were enough to do him in.

“C’mere,” Mack said, opening his arm for Hunter, who crawled over Daisy to tuck himself into Mack’s side. Even if Hunter hadn’t started out as cuddly as Bobbi, he’d grown increasingly tactile since they’d started sleeping in the same bed. Bobbi had once complained to him about how much Hunter wanted to touch and be touched, but for Mack it was a pleasant reminder of how much was forgiven between them, and how much their friendship had changed.

“Pay attention to the game, not Hunter!”

Mack sighed good-naturedly. “Yes, Tremors.”

\---

“I don’t want you to go,” Bobbi whispered, resting her head against Mack’s shoulder.

He ran a hand through her hair in a way he hoped was soothing. “I know, Barbara. But you’ll be fine without me.”

“No I won’t,” she whined. “The bed feels too big without you.”

“You mean the bed feels a normal size without all of us trying to squish into it.” Mack knew they all slept better when it was the three of them together, which was a concern in and of itself, but none of them could pretend the queen-sized bed was big enough for three adults to be comfortable.

“Too big,” Bobbi insisted.

“You have Hunter.”

“He’s not you!”

“Hey, hey. It’s only a week.” Saying it made Mack’s gut clench uncomfortably. The last time he and Bobbi had spent more than a week apart wasn’t in his recent memory, and it was even stranger given how much closer the three of them had grown recently. He inhaled the scent of Bobbi’s shampoo in a vain effort to relax himself. Bobbi was going to be fine, and he was going to be fine - and Mack couldn’t just leave Daisy to go into the field alone.

“Promise me you’ll come back?” Bobbi withdrew to look Mack in the eyes.

“Promise.” That part at least was easy.

Bobbi tilted her chin up a fraction, a silent request for… something. Mack didn’t know what. He leaned her forehead down to touch hers gently. “Don’t get into too much trouble. Hunter can't handle you by himself.”

“Don’t die out there,” Bobbi said in return.

“Ready to go?” Daisy asked for the doorway.

“Yeah, give me a sec.” Mack turned back to Bobbi. “I won’t. Be good, okay?”

Bobbi nodded, and Mack turned away so he could pretend he hadn’t seen her lower lip begin to quiver. It was just a week. Everything would be fine.

\---

They got back to base two days behind schedule. Technically three, since it was the wee hours of the morning when their Quinjet landed, but Mack was going to stick with two. 

The mission had ended in an unexpected firefight, and even the flight back to the Playground hadn’t helped tamp down the adrenaline. He needed a shower and several hours before he had any hope of sleep.

And he needed to check on Bobbi and Hunter. His path was going to take him by their bunk anyways, and it was simple to enter their passcode and stick his head in to make sure they were both there and safe.

“Mack?”

He should’ve known Hunter was going to be awake. “Hey, buddy.”

Before Mack knew it he had an armful of his friend, Hunter’s cheek pressed against the chestplate of Mack’s tac suit. It probably didn’t smell the best, but Hunter didn’t seem to mind.

“Come to bed,” Hunter half-commanded, half-begged. 

“I can’t sleep right now,” Mack said, glancing over Hunter’s shoulder to where Bobbi was curled on the mattress. With her slowly-increasing mobility, she was more able to sleep in the odd question-mark shape she seemed to prefer. Mack couldn’t complain about it, though, because it made her easier to spoon.

“She’s passed out. Bad day at physical therapy.” Hunter squeezed Mack a little tighter. “She’s pissed at you.”

“I was worried about that.” Even two extra days probably felt like an eternity, especially since he and Daisy hadn’t been able to communicate they were safe. Bobbi had probably been worried sick.

“She’ll get over it.” Hunter finally released Mack from the hug, but Mack couldn’t read his expression in the darkness of the room. “Can I come with you? Wherever you’re going?”

Mack didn’t have the heart to say no, so he slung his arm around Hunter’s shoulders and headed for the common room. They could watch whatever crappy movie was on cable and catch up on Mack’s physical contact quota. Hugging Daisy just didn’t feel the same as having Bobbi or Hunter beside him.

“We were worried about you,” Hunter said as he settled onto the couch. He pointed at Mack’s tac suit. “You gonna take that off?”

He hadn’t thought about that - how uncomfortable the suit really was, and how it would get in the way of the close contact he craved. Mack peeled off the armored upper half of his clothing, leaving him in just a dingy white tank top that nearly matched the one Hunter was wearing. If Hunter’s hadn’t been stretched so tight across his chest, Mack might’ve been suspicious it was stolen.

“You have better things to worry about,” he said when he took his seat next to Hunter. Routine missions weren’t as important as Bobbi getting her health back - or hell, even Hunter learning how to _sleep_.

“Don’t give me that,” Hunter said, pulling Mack closer to him. “We’re always going to worry about you. _I’m_ always going to worry about you. Sometimes I think…”

“What?” Mack prompted when Hunter didn’t finish his sentence.

“Sometimes I think you don’t realize how much we love you. _I_ love you.”

Mack turned his head so he could look Hunter in the eyes, suddenly aware of just how little space there was between them. Hunter smelled like old cologne and sleep and Bobbi, and their mouths were so close Mack could taste it. All he had to do was lean down, and -

“Hey, Mack - oops,” Daisy said, already beginning to back out of the common room. “I’ll ask you tomorrow when we debrief!”

Even the small interruption was enough for Mack to regather his senses. He couldn’t kiss Hunter, no matter how much he wanted to - just like he could never kiss Bobbi, either. 

He clicked on the television and flipped through channels until he found a movie to be suitable background noise. Hunter didn’t speak again, just allowed Mack to sag further and further against him, until the drone of the television became the soundtrack for Mack’s dreams.

\---

Life went on. Daisy didn’t mention walking in on Mack almost kissing someone who was very much taken, which he appreciated. Pretending things were normal was hard when his love for Bobbi and Hunter was now at a point where he couldn’t ignore it, but… he couldn’t walk away from them. He couldn’t say no to them, either, which was troubling when they kept inviting him into their bed. Not for sex, thank God, but even sleeping next to them was hard when there was so much he wanted to say but couldn’t.

“You should just move your stuff here,” Bobbi said blearily, burying her face in the space between his shoulder blades. She had insisted on being the middle spoon that night, leaving Mack to (somehow) be the littlest spoon.

“This room isn’t designed for two people, let alone three,” Mack answered, avoiding the request.

“Neither is this bed, but we’ve managed alright so far.” Hunter’s fingers traced along the line of Mack’s hipbone idly, the gesture oddly comforting despite the awkwardness of the conversation.

“You’re here all the time anyways.” Bobbi’s voice was muffled in his back, but Mack managed to make out the words nonetheless.

“If you don’t want me here -”

“Love, we’re saying the exact opposite of that,” Hunter said, exasperated. “We want you here all the time. _All_ the time.” He repeated the last three words like they had some sort of significance, but Mack couldn’t find any.

Mack didn’t understand it - he was already intruding on Bobbi and Hunter’s lives enough. He was almost sure they hadn’t had sex since Bobbi came back from the hospital, which would be a record for them, yet somehow they wanted him to be around _more_? It didn’t compute.

“I’ll think about it,” Mack said, yawning. The answer seemed to satisfy them, but the hollow in his chest that had appeared when he realized he was in love with two people he couldn’t have gaped larger with each passing minute, threatening to swallow him whole.

\---

“I’m in love with Bobbi and Hunter.” The words came out only with the assistance of three beers and a healthy dose of self-loathing, and Mack leaned back to see how Daisy would react to the declaration.

Instead of pity, Daisy gave him a look approximating _well, duh_. “Aren’t you, you know, together?”

“Huh?”

“Mack. Dude.” Daisy sighed. “Do I need to spell this out for you? One -” Daisy stuck up a finger “- you _moved in with them_.”

“To help Bobbi with her recovery!” he defended. And because they smelled really nice and he slept better in their bed, but that was beside the point.

“Which is why you’re still there three months later when Bobbi can get around fine on her own?”

He didn’t have an answer.

“Two.” Daisy held up another finger. “You call Hunter _Lance_.”

“Because it’s his name!” Besides, that had only happened once or twice, in moments of weakness. He didn’t have any right to that name - Bobbi only called Hunter that when she was scared or he needed comforting, and Mack shouldn’t have taken it and ruined its sanctity.

“Three, you go on dates with them literally every Friday -” At least Daisy had stopped doing the finger thing so Mack wasn’t face-to-face with the mounting evidence.

“We just eat take out!”

“You eat takeout and flirt shamelessly and make heart eyes at them for like, three hours! And then you all disappear into your room and honestly, I thought the soundproofing here must’ve been really good, but apparently you’re _not_ having sex with them, so…”

“I do _not_ make heart eyes.” He wasn’t going to touch the sex part with a ten-foot pole.

“Mack. You totally make heart eyes. And if you’re not with them why do I keep walking in on you almost kissing them?”

Mack sighed. “Because I’m in love with them and I _want_ to kiss them.”

“They want to kiss you too!”

“You don’t know that!” Mack huffed.

“Fitz says every time we leave Bobbi and Hunter mope around for days.”

“Fitz is _not_ allowed to pass judgment on other people moping right now.” Fitz was probably just projecting his own bad mood onto everyone else.

“If you don’t believe me, then ask them,” Daisy said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I guarantee they like you back.”

“Fine.” Mack stood up, his chair clattering back. “I’ll go ask them, then.”

\---

“Are we dating?”

Hunter looked up from the book he was reading, eyes narrowed. “Is that a trick question? Because it feels like a trick question.”

“If we’re dating, I didn’t know we were dating.”

Instead of shock, or anger, or any other emotion Mack might’ve expected with the declaration, he was met with… laughter?

“That explains a _lot_ ,” Hunter snorted. “Oh my God. No _wonder_ you never picked up on all the times I tried to kiss you!”

Bobbi shut the book on Hunter’s lap for him. “We just thought you liked to take things really, _really_ slow.”

“And you just - you were okay with that?” Mack asked, frowning.

“Love,” Hunter said, beckoning Mack out of the doorway and towards the bed, “when I said we love you, I mean we _love_ you. All the time. Have done since we were married, but by the time we realized it we were falling apart, and we didn’t want to drag you onto a sinking ship.”

Mack fell into the bed, pillowing his head against Hunter’s chest, steadied by the quiet _lub-dub_ of Hunter’s heart. Hunter wrapped his arms around Mack’s shoulders and kissed the top of his head gently. 

“What do you want, Mack?” Bobbi asked, scooting closer to him and Hunter. 

“I want you,” he croaked. He wanted this, the easy comfort of loving the two people who knew him best in the world. He wanted to spend his days beside them and his nights dreaming of them - he wanted as much of forever as they could get living the lives they did. 

“Good,” Bobbi whispered, “because we want you too.”

When she leaned in close, Mack didn’t need to hesitate before fitting his lips against hers. He didn’t need to overthink anymore, just sink into kissing Bobbi like he should’ve done the first time he’d said goodbye. Her mouth was soft and supple and sweet, like nothing he’d ever tasted before, and a lifetime of those kisses would never be enough to satisfy him.

“And, um,” Bobbi said when she drew back. “We know about the whole ace thing, but we didn’t really know what to do about it?”

Mack groaned, swiping a hand over his face. “Is that why I’ve never walked in on you guys?”

“Basically,” Hunter answered drily. 

“I don’t expect you two to be celibate for the rest of your lives just because I’m not into sex,” Mack said, squirming so he was in between Bobbi and Hunter instead of on top of the latter. “I don’t -” his cheeks were flaming at the admission “- I don’t mind, uh, watching. Sometimes.”

“That’s good to know,” Hunter said, voice higher than it had been a moment before.

“You’ll tell us if we’re ever pushing too far?” Bobbi asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Establishing boundaries when it came to sex hadn’t been something Mack was great at in his previous relationships - but Bobbi and Hunter were easier. They were his best friends and as much as they drove him up a wall, they respected him.

They loved him.

“So do I get to kiss you or no?” Hunter asked.

“Maybe if you ask nicely,” Mack smirked.

“Dearest Alphonso, may I please have the pleasure of your mouth on my mouth?”

“I don’t think that counts as asking nicely,” Mack said, tapping his chin.

“Oh, shut up and kiss me.” Hunter cupped the back of Mack’s neck and dragged him in for a hungry kiss. For all the times Mack had imagined this moment, he’d never thought kissing Hunter would feel like this - like touching a live flame.

“I am never going to get enough of this,” Hunter breathed against Mack’s lips. “In fact, can we make arrangements so I get to spend the rest of my life kissing you?”

Mack laughed. “Lance, buddy, I love you, but no.”

“Mm,” Hunter hummed, laying his head against Mack’s shoulder. “Say that again.”

“I love you,” Mack repeated, wrapping one arm around Bobbi’s shoulders and the other around Hunter’s. “I love you a lot.”

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [Gort](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gort/pseuds/Gort) and [Blue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallblueandloud) for their help on this fic! :)


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